I believe he also mentioned a Duke Energy colleague, along with a Romney campaign staff person from Colorado joining the team. I'm pretty sure I remember reading the General Assembly increasing the number of appointed positions, rather than merit-based hires, for the new governor to increase cronyism. This from the same legislature that instead of focusing on jobs has attacked women, gays, education, colleges, and the environment.

Art Pope and Duke Energy's money have bought them a lot of seats at the table. Art Pope also recently got a seat at the UNC University System table. And this is what he thinks of it.

"No, we are not making this up. The following is an excerpt from a fundraising email sent out this morning by the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy (better known as the Pope Center to Dismantle Higher Education):

“While we congratulate the president on his victory, conservatives are asking themselves why he won. One reason is our universities. ... The Pope Center is dedicated to restoring balance to our colleges and universities."

With the Governor's mansion, a super-majority in the state House, a super-majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the NC Supreme Court there are no checks or balances on whatever the Governor wants to do. All we can do is wait, watch, and see, but so far it's not off to a good start if good government and avoiding corruption is the goal.

"A new state law enables the governor to fill 1,000 state government jobs with political allies – more than double the current amount."

Quote :

"The new officeholder also will receive $660,000 in taxpayer money to hire interim staffers and consultants – twice the amount that Gov. Bev Perdue received four years ago."

Quote :

"Impact on Duke Energy?

All new governors make appointments to boards and commissions, but the next chief executive will fill a number of key positions on high-profile boards.

Three of the seven spots on the N.C. Utilities Commission come open in the next eight months, including the chairman. The openings would come as Duke Energy, the state’s largest utility, prepares a request to increase its rates and faces a sweeping investigation concerning its merger with Progress Energy.

Dalton has supported Duke Energy projects in the past, but McCrory is even closer to the company, having worked there as an executive for 29 years until his run for governor in 2008. Critics suggest the utility delayed its rate hike request until 2013 to wait for favorable appointments from a likely Republican governor."

"“While we congratulate the president on his victory, conservatives are asking themselves why he won. One reason is our universities. ... The Pope Center is dedicated to restoring balance to our colleges and universities.""

yeah a guy I work with told me he thought I was probably "normal" before I went to college. I laughed in his face (which is becoming pretty common occurence).

I was actually in "wait and see" mode for Pat. As mayor of charlotte he did some relatively progressive things and I always viewed him as moderate. But this Art Pope appointment does not bode well for Pat's future direction.

I do, however, predict many "It's Pat!!" jokes over the next few years

My main concern with Pat is I do not see him vetoing any legislation that the republican controlled house/senate puts forth. I may be wrong but I don't see him moderating the extreme right wing we just elected. We will see voter ID and most likely anti-abortion legislation soon, possibly even anti-gay stuff too.

2nd:Art Pope

3rd: The Duke/Progress happenings and cronyism. Expect more for the 1%, less for the 99%.

^To his point I have a few guesses. Prior to the GOP take over in 2010 the General Assembly passed an anti-bullying law for our schools that was LGBT inclusive. Since it's been there for a few years now, I doubt it'd get repealed or modified to exclude gays but who knows.

It's also things they won't do. They Dems were also working on removing a law saying that gays are a crime against nature or C.A.N. law. Lawrence v Texas made that law essentially unenforceable, but right now it's still a pretty derogatory and dehumanizing law on the books that is completely unnecessary. But I don't see the GOP going for simplified government by removing unnecessary laws.

They may also route public funds away from public schools which can't kick you out for being gay or having gay parents.

^While I don't think that's true, the republican House Speaker Tillis is also from the area which certainly fits the mold. This is now the leadership of our state for House (Tillis), Senate (Berger), and McCrory in the Governor's mansion.

Although the race is still too close to call on Lt. Governor between these too until all the provisional ballots are counted:

I actually had a discussion with someone on the bus who said that North Carolina is one of the most backward states. The person was saying that in NC they elect members of the KKK to office. I'm wondering if by KKK they meant the Republican party?

Who knows... I live in Boston... I can see people here mistaking the KKK with the Republican party. Another person made fun of me when I said I moved up from Chapel Hill, saying that must be a religious right-wing nut town by the name of it. Oh, the irony.

The provisional ballots brought it closer by thousands of votes, but of today the winner is officially the dude on the right.

To my knowledge he's never held office so far so this is his starter position, but he's U.S. Representative Sue Myrick's kid (representing district 9 in the area around Charlotte), he went to college in the area at UNC Charlotte, and is on the board of the Faith Driven Consumer.

It's interesting how the Queen City now has 3 of those 4 leadership positions (Tillis, McCrory, Forest).

I didn't vote for him, but he gets some major points from me after reading this:

Quote :

"With Mr. Romney’s loss still an open sore, Mr. Christie’s conduct remains a topic of widespread discussion in the party.

“People keep asking me why you were so nice to the president,” Governor-elect Pat McCrory of North Carolina told Mr. Christie when they encountered each other beneath a gem-studded chandelier at the hotel.

"News from the transition team of Gov-elect Pat McCrory has been sparse. We know McCrory and his team are interviewing candidates for cabinet secretaries and other key administrative positions this week, but there’s been little news coverage of who the candidates are or how much progress McCrory is making.

Reportedly, conservative funder Art Pope is one of a handful of people sitting in on many of the interviews or meeting with candidates after they talk to McCrory himself.

That’s not a surprise considering that McCrory named Pope co-chair of his transition effort"

A friend in Charlotte told me he spotted Pat & Art eating together in Charlotte recently.

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Gov.-elect Pat McCrory named a close political ally and a veteran business executive on Thursday to join his Cabinet"

The question of whether this would be a cronyism supporting administration was already answered with Pope's immediate high profile position, but it's nice to see his other political allies getting good jobs too.

Restoration Systems is a mitigation bank for wetlands and streams. Probably ~2 years ago restoration systems was one of the leading companies demanding (modest) reforms in the NC mitigation and ecosystem enhancement programs (EEP). I don't know all the details to be super critical but I think it was a change for the better.

That doesn't necessarily make Skvarla super "green" or anything, but he does have a lot of management experience and I think he probably has some understanding of keeping the balance between business and the environment. I'd like to know how technically minded he is, but I guess thats why DENR hires scientists.

"Probably ~2 years ago restoration systems was one of the leading companies demanding (modest) reforms in the NC mitigation and ecosystem enhancement programs (EEP). I don't know all the details to be super critical but I think it was a change for the better."

they're constantly pushing for more regulations to favor private companies. they basically made it so developers seeking to buy mitigation credits have to go private companies to get them before they go to EEP. many developers and environmentalists don't think this was a change for the better. they're definitely more concerned about the business side, not the environment.

"they're definitely more concerned about the business side, not the environment."

Yea, don't get me wrong here, RS was acting in self interest. Skvarla is a lawyer/business management type first, he just happens to be peddling mitigation credits.

My understanding is (and correct me if I'm wrong) that EEP contracts with private companies to complete restorations, they only site the work and create the contracts, etc. One of the EEP's problems is that developers were moving forward with their construction before EEP contractors had their restorations "established." So that there was a time-lapse in "no net loss" of wetlands (or whatever ecosystem).

The new rules created a more "Turn-key" style of mitigation where the systems were established and only then could credits be sold to developers so that there is no lapse.

This does tend to favor large scale mitigation banks that can raise a lot of capital and manage a lot of land but from an environmental perspective it seems preferable.

"Last month, the 77 Republicans unanimously selected House Speaker Thom Tillis (R-Meccklenburg) to a second term. On Saturday, the group selected Rep. Paul Stam (R-Wake) as House Speaker Pro-Tem and R. Edgar Starnes (R-Caldwell) as Majority Leader.

Starnes is a nine-term House member from Hickory who served as House Finance chairman last session. Starnes developed a reputation as an advocate for maintaining strict regulations on the sale of alcohol."

Stam & Tillis staying in the leadership, but with this war on alcohol guy added on. The status quo with a side of prohibition, should be an interesting team for McCrory to move backwards with.